President Donald Trump Versus the U.S. Constitution

[don-o]

President Donald Trump Versus the U.S. Constitution

Chris Edelson

http://time.com/4320105/donald-trump-u-s-constitution/

Chris Edelson is an assistant professor of government in American University’s School of Public Affairs and the author of Power Without Constraint: The Post 9/11 Presidency and National Security

Will he recognize limits on power?

Donald Trump is running a presidential campaign that often seems to be more about projecting strength than offering specific policy positions. Trump presents himself to voters as a “strong man” type who would deport millions of people currently living in the U.S., bar Muslims from entering the country, shut down mosques and perhaps set up a national database to track Muslims.

Given that Trump is now the presumptive Republican nominee, it’s worth considering how his “strong man” approach would play out in office. Some are skeptical of his rhetoric, arguing that Trump, if elected, would have to contend with the reality that presidents generally cannot act alone. The Constitution divides most powers between the President and Congress: presidents cannot go to war unilaterally, they cannot make unilateral decisions about most matters involving national security. The constitutional system of separation of powers uses checks and balances to make sure no one branch of government has concentrated power.

That is certainly correct, in theory. In practice, however, recent presidents have shown a willingness and ability to write Congress out of the equation. A President Trump who determined to act without Congress would have recent precedent to draw on—most notoriously, the unitary executive theory relied on by the Bush administration. The unitary executive theory rejects the idea of checks and balances, claiming unchecked power for the president, even the power to set aside criminal laws. As political scientist Jim Pfiffner observes, this theory assigns presidents “powers once asserted by kings.” The Bush administration invoked the unitary executive theory to justify torture and warrantless surveillance prohibited by criminal law, and to claim complete power over decisions to use military force.

more at source including links for context

[don-o]

clicking on one of the links

https://www.acslaw.org/acsblog/exploring-the-limits-of-presidential-power

found this

Boy howdy!

by Chris Edelson, Assistant Professor of Government, American University School of Public Affairs

In March 2009, about a month after President George W. Bush and Dick Cheney left office, Scott Horton declared that “[w]e may not have realized it, but in the period from late 2001-January 19, 2009, this country was a dictatorship.  That was thanks to secret memos crafted deep inside the Justice Department that effectively trashed the Constitution.”  Some of the most infamous of these memos were drafted by John Yoo, an Office of Legal Counsel attorney from 2001-2003.  Yoo and others – most notably, Cheney’s counsel, David Addington – advanced the unitary executive theory, a theory of presidential power Cheney had personally favored for decades.

The unitary executive theory, as implemented by the Bush administration, was claimed to justify effectively unchecked presidential power over the use of military force, the detention and interrogation of prisoners, extraordinary rendition and intelligence gathering.  According to the unitary executive theory, since the Constitution assigns the president all of “the executive power”, he can set aside laws that attempt to limit his power over national security.  This is an enormous power: critics charge that it effectively places the president above the law.  Advocates of broad presidential power argue it is necessary to defend the nation against the threat posed by terrorism.

[BigHomer]

clicking on one of the links

https://www.acslaw.org/acsblog/exploring-the-limits-of-presidential-power

found this

Boy howdy!

Trump is a worm